I gave the no-carb diet craze a try last year. My wife was getting ready to fit into her grandmother’s wedding dress for our big day and it seemed like an experimental way to shed a few pounds before walking down the aisle. Different bodies, hormones, and gut bacteria react to special diets in different ways, and I ended up losing much more weight than Rebecca.
Which was frustrating, to say the least.
What did happen to both of us, though, is that we were both noticeably crankier. I longed for the simplicity of eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast, or a slice of toast with jam. More than longing, we were just unsatisfied and grumpy. Making food, something that once brought us joy, was now more drudgery than fun.
It was an interesting experiment, one that we entered into with an appropriate amount of levity. So it was with a small chuckle that I found this recipe for Cucumber Noodles with Peanut Sauce. It brought me right back to my brief, no-pasta-allowed diet. Remembering how unsatisfied I felt after eating a heap of cucumbers in the past, I had no intention of making this recipe with cucumber “noodles” alone. Thus, I decided to augment it with a half a box of spaghetti (gluten alert).
Making cucumber noodles without a mandoline takes some patience, I will say, but I liked the way the cucumbers added a different texture element to the dish. If you are able to eat gluten, and decide to do it my way (with traditional and vegetable-noodles), use two large cucumbers and 8oz of pasta for an appropriate balance of texture and taste.
Cooking For My Lovely 